Pique Technique

Description

Rather than make a standard request for something, make an unusual request
that leads people to wonder why you are making that particular request (and hence
pay attention to you).

If they ask you why you are asking for something novel, then you can engage
them in other methods of persuasion.

Example

Santos, Leve and Pratkanis (1994) got a 'panhandler' beggar to
ask passersby for money. In the control conditions, when they asked "Can you
spare any change?" 44 percent of passersby complied. When they asked "Can you
spare a quarter?" the compliance rate increased to 64 percent. When they asked
"Can you spare 17 cents?" or "Can you spare 37 cents?" about 75 percent of
people made a contribution.

Ask to meet people at seven minutes past the hour, rather than
on the hour.

Discussion

Making a novel request creates
surprise, breaking the
person out of their
schema and forces them
pay attention, thinking further about your request in a
central
processing fashion. The novelty in the request piques their interest (hence
the name of the technique).

Note that you do not always want people to think too hard about what they are
being asked for. In such cases, the reverse process should be used, asking for a
common thing and not something that will pique interest.

One reason why Santos et al's panhandler experiment worked was that When
walking past a beggar, people try to be 'unthinking', not noticing them, as they
remind people of unpleasant possibilities that 'could happen to anyone'. The
Pique Technique forces them to think and hence act.

In a later meta-analysis, Lee (2017) reviewed six studies and confirmed that
seeking donations earned more, not because the pique technique gained more money
per donation, but because it increased the chance of getting any donation.